Redding Board of Education Passes 3.41% Budget Increase

On Monday night, Feb. 7, the Redding Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a 3.41 percent budget increase for the 2011-2012 school year. The new operating budget, should the public approve, is $21,354,400.

The vote came wearily at a meeting which, due to an elongated tri-board meeting immediately prior, stopped well after 10 p.m.

In January, Superintendent Michael Cicchetti for Redding's schools.

Budget drivers include new teaching specialists, pensions, a portable computer lab of 25 laptops, and both technical and structural improvements at , where the meeting was held.

Improvements to emergency sound systems and door repair totaled $1,445,432, or seven percent of the budget.

Additional pensions for the support staff increased by 4.52 percent. An "anonymous" teacher's resignation also freed up some money.

 A comparable budget

Budget increases for Wilton, Trumbull, Greenwich, Danbury, Redding, Westport, Weston and Monroe average a 3.05 percent, settling Redding’s budget request slightly above the neighboring towns. Throughout Connecticut, budgets average a 3.04 percent increase so far.

Communication problems?

“I don’t get to a lot of these meetings; I look to email,” for board information, said Redding resident Kim Thomson. Thomson echoed statements in the earlier tri-board meeting in which some audience members were concerned with a lack of communication between the board and its taxpayers.

An ‘abominable’ boiler system

“The [John Read] boiler system is an abomination,” said Chris Nolan, a Redding resident familiar with the boiler's installation. “That system is going to go down.” Nolan stressed the abysmal reality of a broken boiler system, which he said would cost taxpayers much more to fix after it has ruptured.

The boiler system is less than two years old, but does not have a working warranty because the company which manufactured the boiler system is no longer in business, Nolan said.

When asked if the boiler would survive the winter, Nolan said that they were “barely eking by.” Someone from the audience muttered that some rooms no longer have heat.

"Corners were cut” during the installation of the boiler, said Nolan.

The board stated that they would meet again to discuss the boiler issue. Money to replace it may have to come from a $100,000 surplus fund.

The next board meeting will take place on March 1.